Wooden shipping crates are widely used to protect equipment and other products during transportation. Examples of such products and equipment include large automobile parts, e.g., door assemblies, which are shipped from a sub-contractor to the automobile manufacturer. Shipping crates are also commonly employed to protect other types of heavy equipment and products while being transported from the manufacturer or moved from site-to-site.
Known shipping crates include a wooden pallet having a rectangular wooden frame which rests on the ground, and an elevated platform nailed onto the wooden frame. An example of a known type of pallet is shown in FIG. 1, and includes a base 10 which rests on the ground, which may be either a solid piece of a plurality of parallel, horizontal boards. A plurality of risers 12 extend from the top surface of the base 10 and are secured to the base 10, e.g., by nails (not shown). Finally, a platform 14, usually formed by a plurality of parallel, horizontal boards extending perpendicular to the riser 12, rests on top of the risers 12 and is secured thereto.
The crate also includes four sidewalls made of boards having a rectangular cross-section, e.g., 2×4 inch boards. As shown in FIG. 2, each sidewall has upper and lower horizontally extending boards, 16 and 18, respectively, and a pair of vertical boards 20 nailed to the inwardly facing surface of the opposite ends of the horizontal boards 16, 18, to form a rectangular frame. A diagonal cross board 22 is nailed to the rectangular sidewall to provide strength and rigidity.
Products which are shipped using shipping crates tend to be heavy. And, it is desirable to provide shipping crates in which the space between the product and the crate walls is minimal, in order to tightly surround and secure the product. It would be difficult to move a heavy product into such a crate were the crate to be pre-manufactured. For such reasons, shipping crates are typically formed in situ. Initially, the product being shipped is placed on the elevated platform of a pre-manufactured pallet. Thereafter, four pre-manufactured sidewalls are nailed to the wooden pallet and to each other to complete the shipping crate.
Although the availability of nail guns has reduced the time and manual labor required to manufacture a shipping crate, forming a shipping crate in situ is still relatively time consuming and generally requires two workers, one to position and hold the sidewalls, and the other to nail the sidewalls together and to the pallet. It would be desirable to be able to manufacture a shipping crate in situ more quickly and easily. It would also be desirable to provide a shipping crate assembly which can be formed into a shipping crate by a single worker. It would further be desirable to provide a shipping crate which may be easily disassembled for reuse.